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It's always been a dream of mine to ring a bell on.

Right, right, right.

You know, been a dream of mine to ring the bell on the Nasdaq, but this is way cooler.

Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to creating conversations about consequence that help democracy thrive.

It is Friday, July 31st, and I am Ronnie Cannon.

I have the privilege of serving on the staff of Towards Employment.

Standing here today is especially meaningful Because I first came to Towards Employment as a participant.

Fifty years ago, Towards Employment was founded on the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to build a rewarding career.

Today, I have the privilege of helping others discover that same opportunity, confidence, and purpose.

I welcome you today on behalf of Towards Employment staff and the Board of Directors as we celebrate.

Our 50th year anniversary, to launch in partnership with the City Club of Cleveland what we hope will become an annual conversation about one of the most important issues facing our community and our economy: the dignity of work.

Today's themes couldn't be more timely.

Technology, artificial intelligence, changing skill requirements, and evolving employer needs are transforming the world of work.

Yet one thing has never changed: meaningful, rewarding work remains one of the strongest pathways to dignity, economic mobility, and thriving families and communities.

That belief inspired the founder—the founding of Towards Employment in 1976, and it continues to guide our work today.

This year also gives us an opportunity to celebrate the leaders who have shaped the first 50 years.

Of the organization.

We honor our founder, Soad Mansour who established Manpower Supporting Services in 1976 with a vision that every person deserves the opportunity to work, contribute, and thrive.

We honor and welcome Walter Ginn, our second executive director, who— Whose leadership expanded that vision and built the strong foundation on which the organization continues to grow.

And we celebrate Jill Rizika, who's who after twenty who after twenty-three and a half years as president CEO will be retiring on October first.

Under Jill's leadership, Towards Employment has become nationally recognized for workforce innovation, employer partnership, and advancing economic mobility.

And we honor the leaders of our first 50— as we honor the leaders of our first 50 years, we welcome Tanya Menendez.

Who would lead towards employment into its next chapter?

Please join me in thanking Soa Head Walter and Jill, and welcoming Tanya as we celebrate 50 years of impact looking forward, and we are looking forward to the next 50 years expanding opportunities through the dignity of work.

That's when everybody clap.

But but as I stand here, I would like also like to thank the many board members, alumni, employers, community.

Community partners, funders, elected officials, and friends of Towards Employment who have joined us today.

Your partnership has made 50 years of impact possible.

For our forum today, Jill is joined by one of the national leaders in workforce innovation, Earl Buford, President of CAEL.

He spent his career building partnerships among employers, educators, workforce organizations, and community to create pathways to opportunities in manufacturing, construction, information technology, biohealth, and other growing industries.

Together, Jill and Earl will explore where workforce development has been and where it's heading, and how we can continue building opportunities in a changing economy.

Before we begin, a quick reminder for our livestream and radio audience.

If you have a question during the Q&A portion of the forum, you can text it to 330-541-5794, and the City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

Now, members and friends of the City Club, it is my pleasure to welcome Towards Employment President, CEO, and my friend Jill Rizika, and President of CAEL.

Thank you, Ronnie.

And thanks to everyone for joining us this afternoon.

It is such a wonderful crowd.

It's so great to look out and see so many friends, supporters, colleagues of the work that we've been doing together over the last 20-something years.

So thank you very much for being here.

So I am just thrilled to be sitting here with Earl Buford.

We met, or at least I was introduced to his work, at a conference in Milwaukee.

It was one of the very first national conferences I attended after I joined Towards Employment.

We were there for— to talk about an evaluation that we were part of that was looking at coaches embedded in workplaces to strengthen retention.

And that really— that program has grown into now what we call the Employer Resource Network, which places success coaches at workplaces to help employees stabilize, retain jobs, and advance in their careers, now with employers helping to foot the bill.

This customized employer engagement is illustrative of one of the trends in the field that is really essential to creating pathways to opportunity.

Which is a mission that both TE and CAEL share.

And so I'd like to share just a few more additional words about Earl's background.

So you heard it generally, but in addition to like currently being CEO of CAEL, prior to that he has been the executive director of two different workforce boards, one in Pittsburgh and the other in Milwaukee, where he gained national recognition for implementing and integrating a sector-based based approach to workforce development, which we're gonna focus a little bit on and learning more about his experience there.

But earlier in his career, and this was his role when we met in Milwaukee, was he led one of the first workforce intermediaries in the country.

It's a big acronym, WRTP/BIG.

BIGSTEP.

Yeah, BIGSTEP, which focusing on construction.

And then he extends his leadership role via active board membership.

Just giving you a sense of the array of organizations that he's involved in: Apprenticeships for America, Catalyst Connection, which is a manufacturing extension partnership like Magnet we have here, Bridgeway Capital, a community development finance institution, National Network of Sector Partners, National Skills Coalition, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Pittsburgh branch.

He previously served on Vice President Joe Biden's Task Force on Effective Workforce Strategies and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's Task Force on Minority unemployment.

So, I know we're all thrilled to have him here as part of this conversation.

So, as we celebrate Towards Employment's 50th anniversary, we have invited you here to share your observations about how the field has evolved and where it's headed next, with a big focus on thinking about the dignity of work front and center as we think about these strategies.

Our work at Towards Employment has evolved, and you heard Soa talking about this emphasis on supportive services.

So really from a place of focusing on removing barriers to training and work to actually doing some of the training and placement, adding a strong emphasis on retention, and then looking beyond the job and supporting career pathways and advancement.

And we've had a focus on individuals impacted by the criminal justice system, young adults who are disconnected from school and work, and others who face systemic barriers to opportunity.

Each of these shifts has required deeper relationships with employers and new tools and partnerships for assessing and building skills and supporting workers, especially as we navigate the impact of AI and the urgent need for instilling a mindset of lifelong learning.

if you could please walk us through your own pathway.

You started your career working for and then running an industry partnership.

You've led 2 workforce boards that helped create industry partnerships.

You're now running a national organization that helps convene and support such partnerships across the country.

So tell us how you made these transitions, what you've learned about this model's ability to engage employers and workers in creating pathways to opportunity, and maybe share a high point, a low point.

Passing it to you.

Thank you.

First of all, good afternoon, everyone.

It's such a pleasure to be here.

Before I say anything about myself and my work, it's really not about me; it's about TE, isn't it?

So let's another round of applause.

It's it's organizations like that who have great leadership and tenure, but also endure the changing face.

Of world of work, and you've dealt with the ups and downs, the funding restrictions, the partnerships, up and downs of that, and 50 years later you're still here.

So hopefully we conclude with how the next 50 years will look, because that's what's most important.

We'll hopefully get into some of that as well.

I've had an interesting career, I can tell you that.

So I started— I graduated from undergrad.

My father, who I'll explain shortly, wanted me to go to law school.

I got waitlisted at University of Wisconsin.

I'm from Wisconsin originally, even though I live in Pittsburgh now, but I'm not a Pittsburgher.

Let's be very clear about that, okay?

That's a business move.

That's a whole other conversation.

Wisconsin boy.

So I got waitlisted at UW, and so I took a job as a paraprofessional at the local school district.

And the reason that's important, um, I had a chance to work in the classroom.

I eventually became a special ed teacher for about 4 years.

And the reason that's important, I learned 2 things.

I learned that I didn't want to be a teacher for 40 years.

And I love educators, so we'll come back to that.

I knew I wanted to work in the world of workforce.

Now I'll tell you why.

So I'm the product of a high school pregnancy.

My parents met in high school, loved each other right away, and I was in the mix.

And, you know, that can be a really tough environment to to lead, to launch a family.

And so my parents are the perfect example of the world that we work in.

My mother, because she was only 16, had to get her GED to move forward.

And so she did then eventually went to college and became a teacher, educator.

So she took that mantle for the family.

Great success story.

She still volunteers at 2 schools now.

She will not— they want to hire her, she said no, because then I'm beholden to you every day.

I want to be able to help and not be a part of the system.

I just want to help the system.

My father bounced around from temp job to manufacturing job.

You know, the traditional work 39 days, you get cut because, you know, you're a temp.

So he just happened for 2 years, went through every job training program in the greater Milwaukee area until he stumbled onto another organization like TE that had a relationship with a big employer, Delco Electronics.

Who had an articulation agreement.

This class— and this is 1976— would be the first.

This was going to integrate the factory.

So these 22 graduates, they graduate, had a guaranteed job with Delco Electronics making $22 an hour in 1976.

That was a lot.

We call that day the day we won the workforce lottery.

It changed our lives forever, okay?

Between my mother succeeding and becoming an educator, my dad— by the way, he retired from Delco Electronics.

Later General Motors, 30 years.

And so when I'm in the classroom thinking about how that affected my life, I want to replicate that over and over and over again.

Yes, I could do that from the classroom, but I think I could do it better working in the world of work.

So I left the school district to go work for the— this is now in 1996— to work for the local Private Industry Council, for those who know what PICs are, predecessor to workforce boards.

So I worked for the PIC running youth programs.

One last piece on that one.

So I did that for about 3 years.

I started to work with the trades somewhat, bring them into the schools, talking to kids.

And just out of the blue, this is one of those lucky moments, the president of Milwaukee Building Trades took a liking to me for some reason.

And so he recruited me to run the building trades nonprofit program called Big Step.

So this is 1999 now.

So my first executive experience.

And so the reason I know so much knowledge about construction, because I actually lived it with these, these individuals and learned the ins and outs of not just training individuals and recruiting, but how the pathways really work within the trades.

And this also expanded to manufacturing, utilities, everything skill trade related we, we prepared for.

Um, in 2013, I was part of— I've been Vice President Biden's National Task Force to rethink workforce in this country.

That was his task from President Obama.

And 2 things on that— this is, I promise the story connects— is the very first day he showed up, he didn't make any other meetings.

We made that first day.

And all the intermediaries in the room, because you have university, you had workforce boards and others, so the intermediaries were all whining about, well, you give all the money to the schools, you got money to the workforce systems, we're doing the work.

The WTPs, the TEs are doing all the work, but yet you give it to them.

Why?

And he said, okay, I'll deal with that one.

He said, well, first of all, my wife's an educator, so I can't go home at night if I don't support them.

Got that.

Workforce systems are, you know, the job centers are important.

But he said, there's not one legislator in this country, left or right, who doesn't like the ivory towers of a college and a job center in their district.

Their jurisdiction.

So until you give me something better, that's how it's going to be.

3 months later, I was running the Workforce Board.

I saw that— I saw what he meant by that, like, help this system improve and we can better help the job training situations, the practitioner work.

And so I made that transition to then Employ Milwaukee, and then I was recruited 9 years ago to run the Workforce Board in Pittsburgh.

And in between that, we created another organization in which your workforce board is a part of called Midwest Urban Strategy.

So I created an association of workforce boards across what's called Department of Labor Region 5, or the Midwest.

So Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St.

Louis, Kansas City, all part of this collaboration.

And the reason that's important— so the job was to bring federal resources back to their communities in a partnership way so that they can work with partners on the ground better.

So I hope became part of some of your work as well.

So the last piece of that long answer is my mother, who worked one school district— my father worked 30 years at one place— she thinks I can't keep a job.

But that just shows you how the world of work has evolved from our parents worked at one place for a long time to, you know what, if you can help change systems and align systems And you're— if it's your passion, go do it.

And that's pretty much what I've done over the past 10 years of work between those different organizations.

Now I'm at CAEL, which— CAEL with a C, not a K. And our title talks about experiential learning, but really our focus is adult learners.

How do we get adult learners to navigate these crazy systems to help them really get on their path to economic mobility and career advancement?

That's really ultimately what it's about, but we do it by aligning systems.

How does higher ed at every level work better with workforce boards and practitioners on behalf of employers in industry, while employers in industry are co-creators of how this comes together?

Because if all that happens, people know how to navigate much easier.

And so that talent— those talented individuals in your region can find their path, work hard, and be a functioning part of your community.

So I don't know if I answered the question enough, but thank you.

That's, that's fine.

So, um, You talked about aligning systems.

Yes.

An industry sector partnership is one way to align a subset of systems to help create pathways to opportunity that might not be available to a worker who doesn't have access to this industry sector partnership.

So describe just an overview for generally what an industry sector partnership is.

But if you could share, you've done that now in several communities.

There's many people in this room who have been involved in industry sector partnerships here in Cleveland.

Tell us some of your best practices and maybe some pitfalls in being able to build successful industry sector partnerships.

Yeah, thank you.

I found that relationships are the key.

Now, you're in this room because, one, you're interested in this topic, but you all have relationships with one another.

So I always I was taught by my mentors in developing these IP models, especially across sectors.

I think one, one of my mentors said, well, first of all, it's the easiest way to get everyone into a room.

And I say that plainly because it's true.

So how do you get employers and labor practitioners, educators to focus and work on something together?

Well, you convene them.

And so that's always been the key for me.

And with IPs, of course, you get You find— try to find champions as well.

But from a theoretical standpoint, it's— you really can't move something forward unless you have these aligned partners.

And so organizing for those— yeah, I'm getting to it, I'm getting to it.

Give us a specific example of how you're— how you successfully get people in the room.

I'll go down the line.

So as a practitioner at the Regional Training Partnership, we were a labor-management organization, so we already had labor all the building trades unions and all the manufacturing unions and all the— a big vat of employers, but we didn't have community partners.

So you can't have town hall without community partners.

So we shifted— the traditional IP model is you either have employers by sector or you have practitioners by sector.

Well, we decided to add a community component to it, and we brought in about 15 different community partners throughout the Milwaukee area.

The Urban Leagues of the world, the OICs, or anybody knows those networks, and said, okay, instead of saying you can't find people, they're going to tell you what their people are and where they're training.

But you're also going to help— you're going to help examine their curriculum.

You're going to say, okay, if you're training for these things and your certificates do this, but we're asking for this, where's the gap?

That's usually where this happens, right?

So in this partnership, we're able to diagnose that They're only getting— let's say you need to have 10 competencies to be an electrician, just making this up.

These training programs are going to give you 4.

Where are you going to get the other 6?

Well, let's figure out together, let's diagnose together.

Okay, well, maybe it's the technical college that will provide the other 6, or maybe we'll develop new training modules that you will train for us and we'll articulate and honor.

And the last piece of that is we'll teach your folks how to actually navigate our application process, our interview process, like all the hidden information you will never get by reading a pamphlet.

And so that was probably the most successful part I've ever— one I've ever been part of.

And at Workforce Board, I decided to emulate that.

But as a, as a workforce board, you're a funder and a convener, so I can bring these players together because I have the money.

They're going to show up.

That's just, just being honest.

And so we were able to create— Point Milwaukee created 7 different IPs Construction, manufacturing, healthcare, banking, financial services, excuse me.

There was really no IT back then.

Could be others, automotive.

So you get the point.

Did the same thing at Pittsburgh.

Fast forward when I was recruited to run CAEL.

What was really attractive about CAEL was its almost 50-year history.

It's 52 years old now.

Is the fact that it had an IP, but a different IP.

It had what?

It had an IEP.

And it's different from educators' IEP, I promise you.

Industry education partnerships.

So what they did in telecommunication energy, all the energy companies around the country, all telecom companies, Verizon, AT&T, labor, IBEW is at the table, but they embedded university, online university programs.

So the training modules for upskilling workers across energy and telecom were these university providers.

And so, and from a business standpoint, we have a rev share agreement with those universities.

So we're able to really articulate this is what's best.

And now we're trying to get them to think about frontline and entry-level positions.

And the next evolution of that is going to be we're not— now we're going to bring in those providers again that we did back in the early IP days.

So taking old models and bringing it back, bringing it forward now.

And also, how does AI get integrated into that?

And then we're going to talk about that later.

Yes.

So a couple examples.

That's great.

And, and so thinking about moving from systems to some of the tools that systems need to, to use.

And so how have these tools evolved over the course of the years that you've been involved in this?

Of course, that brings in AI, but it's also what the goals are for assessment, for testing, for matching.

Yeah, it's change It's changed as it should have.

It's evolved and changed a lot.

So I'm gonna just speak modern day.

So from our work, so we work all across the country, different regions.

We support different regions of the economy, different regional economies, I should say.

And what we try to do is working with key partners who are already in place, and we evaluate two key things.

We assess the MSA, like what's the job demand in a region and what, how many How many workers do we think we're going to need in a region, or do they think it's needed?

And who are the players aligned to help with that, and who's missing, right?

Number one.

So let's— so the evaluation process is the first key technical upgrade that needs to happen.

And do you use the Federal Reserve's data?

Do you use Burning Glass, for those who know that, or any of these other groups, or not?

And then you kind of pilot.

You also use what's already background.

I'm going to bring you down to talking about specifically away from the system and more between a business and the workforce community in terms of skill assessment and, and the various things that you've been very involved in.

Yeah, we talked about this a bit last night.

There's so many different products and programs out there, especially now, and there's so many for-profit companies that are technological companies that are developing, but it still comes back to relationships and how to foster that.

So in our— my world, one of the big pushes we have for adult learners is all learning counts.

So how do you start to recognize skills and ability of someone while trying to meet the needs and class of, of employers?

So it's again what I said earlier, that gap is still there.

So how do you plug that gap?

And so for us, it's— we— there's a tool we call Credit for Prior Learning.

Some of you may know it as Prior Learning Assessment.

The whole PLA confused me because I came from construction.

So project labor agreements and prior learning assessment.

So we started saying credit for prior learning instead.

Just became easier.

And so we created, with some help, an assessment tool to speed up that process.

So let's say one of your trainees is graduating and that you've got a company that recognizes that skill credential, and yet they want to hire them, but they're not going to stay in that job forever.

We don't want them to, nor should they.

So in 2 or 3 years, hopefully they'll upskill with that company or move on to something else.

So the other upskill, you normally have to either go through the training program or go through a university or community college for that next thing.

So credit for prior learning, the secret of it, of that, is it'll take your skills and ability and equate it to credit, college credit.

Okay, so one is a trainee.

Does that certificate— what does that mean?

Does it mean 8 credits, 10 credits, 12 credits in your pocket so you can go to Tri-C and take the next thing that's moving on?

Does your employer say, well, I really like you, I want to upgrade you and promote you, but you got to take this, you know, 60-credit course somewhere for us?

Okay, well, how do we cut the 60 credits down so it comes back to the employer quicker and faster, ready to go?

And now I think my vision is at workforce boards and workforce centers, this assessment tool can speed up the process if you're a dislocated worker or if you're a frontline person looking for that path.

You're gonna say, wait a minute, your work experience, it means 8 credits just based on what you've done already.

Then you start to align, really align the assessment.

And we created this one, it's called Credit Predictor Pro, 4 years ago.

It's already outdated.

We have to update it and upgrade it already because competitors are already doing the same thing.

So that ability to accelerate workers gaining their skills and how we can help make that happen quicker and less expensively is a really key thing.

Last night we went out to dinner and you were correct, mentioned that a reference to, oh, Midwest prices.

And somebody else responded to that, yes, but we have Midwest wages as well.

And so currently, a single mom or a single parent with one child, a living wage is $39 an hour.

Those of us who are working to place people, that's almost double what sort of the going entry-level wage is for an entry-level manufacturing or retail job is, right?

That is a really big gap.

So we are also facing additional headlines which have been referenced, but this economy has been characterized as a low-hire, low-fire economy, right?

Where entry-level rungs to pathways are being broken, possibly, you know, because of AI.

And we've talked about the rapidly changing skill requirements.

So given that, how should the workforce system engage employers today in ways that really can prioritize good jobs, good jobs that offer workers an opportunity to thrive?

What are those essential supports that workers and learners need to be successful?

Well, I'm gonna talk about strategic and tactical approaches first.

Knowing that, and knowing that there's already a large amount of great training programs, they want to emulate that.

But how do we start to upskill those folks that have been trained by you and trained by others to move on from that $18 an hour, which is celebrated?

That first job at 18, we, you know, we get all kinds of credit and lots of funding for that.

But we— you just said there's a gap.

So we focused on helping our employer side, helping them think about upskilling.

Their workforce that's there now?

And then on the practitioner side, how do we think about the next skill level, skill development for the $18 an hour person?

And the tough part about that strategy is there's no funding for that.

As a former funder, we didn't fund that second layer or extended pathway.

And it takes very courageous funders to say, you know what, or funders pooling together say, yes, we're going to fund this extended pathways model.

You don't get funded for that in most cases, right?

Right, exactly.

So you're never to reach that $39,000 gap without that type of strategy.

That's why I wanted to go there first and just be really honest about the need for that.

Second part of that is traditionally universities are not thought of as practitioners, but yet in order to meet $39,000, $40,000, $60 an hour, you probably need some kind of AA or advanced certificate.

So we do— we have to have our university partners more engaged in talent development than they have been.

And it's not a criticism, it's just an opportunity.

And coming out of the pandemic, I had a number of college presidents who would say, I need help placing my seniors because if I start to place them, my reputation is going to go up, they're going to come to my— and they're going to tell everyone else about, you know, We educated them and they got a job.

And I said, well, um, did you tell your provost that yet?

You tell the rest of your, um, your institution that we are going to do different things than just be educators.

So again, it's going to be hard to meet that threshold without that coordination and alignment.

So I want to go there first.

The second part is advocacy to employers.

You know, it's a bottom-line business, but I was really proud about 3 years ago.

We're doing a lot of work in banking right now.

We were funded, heavily funded by Truist Bank and Truist Foundation.

And so at that time, many of the banks were moving their minimum wage to higher, you know, the Truists of the world, the Bank of Americas.

They were proclaiming $25 an hour frontline work, which should be celebrated.

It's still short, but We said to them, okay, great, that's a good start, but what's your plan for extending and growing the skills of those workers once they move on from customer service and tellers?

What— how do you get into cybersecurity, AI presence?

And so we, at least with that, we've— it's been nice to have an IP built around that work because we can really focus— back to original question— we can focus within the cadre of employers on how do they start to really grow their talent.

From the front line to the final line, for lack of a better term.

So that's just some of the strategies we've had to work with.

We collectively as a system had to work with sector by sector, industry by industry, and banking is the latest example.

If you're talking to the trades— I'm sorry, if you're talking to trades, they would say, well, we have built-in advancement already.

So they do.

So that's— but that's only one industry doing that.

So how do we start to really advocate to our employers and industry partners about building, using, building a systematic approach to advancement.

And one thing just to call out locally here with our industry, manufacturing industry partnership, that, that really has built in sort of— there's an entry-level pipeline of people getting hired into their first job and then continued conversations with the employer, the employers who are engaged in that partnership, to think about What are those next steps?

Partnering with the state to think about actually creating new positions and apprenticeships that give people an opportunity to grow.

But it's slow, and that next step still isn't at $39 an hour.

But we are going to be wrapping up this section.

I've got my one last question before we move to audience questions, and that is where we start to shift to look at the future.

So we spent the last 50 years learning about what programs and partnerships.

Create lasting opportunity.

So as we begin our next 50, what advice do you give to those in the room?

And you can pick among this list.

We've got practitioners, funders, employers.

We've got adult learners themselves, young people who are entering today's labor market.

Pick 2 of them.

And I'm gonna pick one.

Okay, pick one.

Embrace technology, embrace AI, and embrace it as an opportunity for all of you.

Um, so I had an opportunity this morning to speak to one of the classes, and which, first of all, I loved it.

Um, that's the fun part of this work is you get to see firsthand the start of their journey.

And AI, and I said, well, you know, we look at it in 3 ways.

One, I start— I'm using it more, utilizing it more for just expediency and efficiency, and we're training our whole organization now on it.

Our products are built, and I just said earlier, we're outdated in some products, so we have to advance and utilize that.

But the last piece is our stakeholders, excuse me, our stakeholders and getting them to really start to advance what they do and how they do it.

And then of course, adult learners and people, embrace it, learn it, don't be afraid it's going to take your job.

Be afraid of that not understanding how it's going to happen.

And how you can— the different roles that are developing from there.

So that's my thing is advance the— don't be afraid of the opportunity.

Go with it, run with it, learn from it, and move forward.

There's 5 others, but that's the one that to me, because it incorporates so many things.

Great.

And then when we— as we move into the audience Q&A, we can pick up any one of these themes.

So we are about to begin the audience Q&A.

For those just tuning in, Via our livestream or radio audience, I'm Jill Rizika, President and CEO of Towards Employment, and moderator for today's conversation.

And I am here with Earl Buford, President and CEO of CAEL.

We are discussing the future of work, economic mobility, and the partnerships that create pathways to rewarding careers.

We welcome questions from everyone: City Club members, guests, and those joining us via livestream at cityclub.org or live radio broadcast at 89.7 WKSU IdeaStream Public Media.

If you'd like to test a text us a question, please text it to 330-541-5794.

That's 330-541-5794, and the City Club staff will work it into the program.

We have the first question, Anthony.

Anthony, good morning or good afternoon.

So first, I want to thank you for your work, Earl, and much appreciation.

I appreciate how you talk about adult learners, and particularly how you talk about them as practitioners.

I think it's a mind shift that we all need to make in terms of talking about them that way versus talking about them as workers, as cogs in a wheel.

So thank you for that.

I'm wondering if you can go back and maybe unpack and talk a little bit about your work in construction and how you've created those pathways, particularly for individuals who may have been justice impacted, because we found that's very hard to get individuals into Unions, trades, and construction.

So maybe give us a little bit advice in terms of how to break through that for our justice-impacted individuals.

So when I started that work, I think I had a traditional job training mentality that all right, we're going to get them through a training program, get them a certificate, and then beg.

Employers and unions take our people.

That was the approach, just be honest.

And then I had a moment, and Anthony, you appreciate this, I called to a meeting— I'll say it quickly— with the business manager of Electrical Workers and his counterpart who led it, who oversaw the Association of Contractors, Electrical Contractors.

And they were losing ground to non-union contractors.

They said it blatantly, said, listen, we're not getting enough apprentices in, we need your help, we're going to pull together a new training classification called Wireman, and we're going to let your organization train for this.

And they can be guaranteed— that can be guaranteed apprenticeship.

They're going to be guaranteed first year same wage as an apprentice.

The reason that's important, one, we got— we were able to raise funds for it, so because they had— it was industry-led.

But what I that is apprenticeship is— I love apprenticeship.

I'm on Apprenticeship for America board.

It's not the magic ticket.

There are other ways to get into the industry.

Um, and if there's union officials there, they have other classifications on their books that they bring people in.

You know the joke about they don't let their sons in or their neighbor's kid?

They don't get into apprenticeship that way.

They get into all these other jobs first.

And so we were able to start training to those other classifications.

They opened the book to me in our organization, said, help us recruit for these things because we get them in that, then we'll figure a way to get into apprenticeship.

So, but really what I'm saying is The relationship.

Their relationship evolved, the trust evolved, and they said, okay, we can work together to solve a problem.

Marcus.

In the 2020s, we've seen huge disruptions in the workplace with remote work, the gig economy, and online content creation monetization.

How do we as the workforce ecosystem evolve to meet some of these new trends that are happening out here?

And then also, how can we help convince young people to actually get a job?

Because if I can sit at home and stream on Twitch and make the same amount of money as I can at your entry-level job, why would I go to work?

Yeah, great question.

I would answer that in 2 ways.

Um, the first one is, so my staff is all remote.

We're literally all over the country and have been before the pandemic.

Um, and that's tough for one, but it's also, it's It's appealing to them for a lot of reasons that are close to them and their families.

So it's going to be hard to break that up.

That's number one.

So we had to embrace it.

But back to your second part of your question, if I can stay at home and Uber for a couple hours and come home and create content, it's hard to beat.

But what's the economic impact of that?

So we go back to Jill's question about the $39 an hour threshold.

If we start to stack and layer skills and explain to explain to the general population better that they know, okay, yeah, I'm only making— I'm gonna use this example— $35 an hour driving Uber and creating content, but now I know how I can make $50 an hour by taking this course.

If they know, if it's as simple as that communication, they understand that it's easier to understand.

It's easy to understand what the next steps are.

Right now they do that because it's easy, they see others do it, and they can explain it.

It's easy to explain to themselves.

We do a horrible job of explaining pathways.

As a system, we do a horrible job.

So we've got to clear that up to make it more appealing and palatable for someone to say, yeah, it's worth my time to leave my house, make $50 an hour.

Does that ring with everyone?

Resonate?

Can I just ask a quick follow-up before we go to our next question?

We've been talking about preparing the worker and what they need to do and understand about But there's also a piece of that that is what's happening in the workplace and the employer adjusting to where these young people are coming from and recognizing that the alternative is easy for them where they don't have to commute, they don't have to deal with teamwork, they don't have to deal with somebody looking over their shoulder.

So maybe a little— if you've got any insights on the employer side, actually, to address his question.

Yeah, many, many of the companies we work with have— we've talked about that, and they are— they know there's a problem for them, and so they're willing to, uh, I'll call it— they'll be trained.

They're ready to know that they need to do that, especially at the HR level, at the— and the people's level.

So they're willing to, but they don't know where to start.

So we give them some tools, but we don't have all the tools.

But again, it comes back to— they have to trust you.

You have to have a relationship with them.

And We were discussing this last night also.

You may have a good five-year window with with an employer, and they may be champions of this, champions of that.

But that person, that champion may leave, or someone in your organization who's your job, your job developer may leave, and starting all over again.

It's a continuous cycle of investment and time to keep those relationships intact.

I joked earlier about the Building Trades president recruiting me to lead their organization.

20-plus years ago, and I built a relationship with him.

It wasn't because I'm this great practitioner developer.

He's like, wait a minute, this, this, I think this young man can do what we need him to do, so let's give him a chance, but train him, give him the tools to do it.

Same thing with the companies, at least the ones we work with, the Comcasts of the world, the Duke Energies.

They all say, yes, we really need help.

What are the tools that we need to better understand the future worker and the future workforce.

Hello.

Our next question is a test question.

It says, you discussed Midwest wages.

In Cleveland, we are behind our Midwest peers, including Cincinnati and Columbus, in wages, but are matching cost of living.

We often lose our talent pool to those cities.

How would you suggest we catch up in order to retain our workforce and create a more thriving economy in Cleveland?

Cleveland?

Well, we touched on the wage issue earlier, and we talked about some, some ways to do that.

But I, I'm even, even bigger proponent on guaranteed opportunity.

If someone graduates with a degree in this market, they should have a job waiting for them.

Someone graduates from your program with an opportunity, they should have employment waiting for them.

Otherwise, they're going to leave and go to what they call cool cities that pay more.

Not understanding that those cities also cost a lot more.

Why would you want to leave this region when you— we have burgers for $12, a beer for $5, and you can afford a really nice 2-bedroom apartment for $1,500 or whatever the— whatever it is.

If they had opportunity, they will stay.

And so what can we do, whether it's use a tool like a learning employment record to say, all right, we gotta We've compiled all the job classifications in this region.

We know exactly what they are, how much they pay, what they require, if it's skills-based hiring or not.

We got all the training certificates and degree programs on this side.

Let's start matching them up.

So I'm, I've been working hard on trying to have a pilot regional matching program in Pittsburgh.

I'm having a lot of pushback so far, but I know it's the way to go because you want to keep your talent at, in their case, CMU and Pitt.

You came from leaving, give them a job.

If I graduate, when I graduated, if I had that job lined up, I would have never left.

Just maybe leave eventually, but you're not gonna leave right away.

So just one strategy.

I love to work.

I would love to work this region on something like that if if that's something we want to do in the new leadership coming in and with our friends at the Workforce Board, Michelle.

Yeah, I'd love to help you put something together like keep your talent here.

Just make sure they they know where where to go.

And make sure the industry knows who's getting what skills and credentials.

It's not that hard to match and start to say, we're going to hire you and keep you here.

Hi, thank you for being here.

I work at a local organization that works with newcomer communities that have come and called Cleveland home from various pathways and made this a new place of opportunity for them.

And even with the wonderful organizations and ecosystems and universities and colleges that have programs that provide access of opportunity and ways that they could try to enter the workforce, whether it's for newcomers.

I often even feel other communities that are often disenfranchised.

I feel we put so much on the employee or the individual who's seeking employment and not a lot on the employer.

You mentioned AI, and there's been a lot of work that our staff does to try to encourage employers to use AI for translation tools and utilize job training.

But there seems to be really complete barrier with employers not willing to give up a lot to be able to gain great talent.

And I'm just curious what your thoughts are about what can employers do to be a little bit more open to increase their workforce?

Well, first of all, a great question, and I'd love to have a great answer for that.

I don't.

But what I can say is about the relationships again.

So your organization may be doing great things, and they may not—they just may not know that.

I'm not—I'm not giving them a. An easy way out, just saying that relationship hasn't been cultivated yet.

And I sit on the Literacy Services Board in Pittsburgh.

Obviously, we deal with a lot of the same things.

And they created a— it's not quite an industry partnership, but an employer council.

And so those employers are basically co-creators of programming with.

And so they're bringing their opportunities, they're helping the programs curriculum develop the right approaches to those wraparound resources and/or training, includes training for the employers as well.

So I'd love to share with you that model if that would be of interest.

That's one.

Again, it's relationships though.

How do you build that?

And so one other piece that could maybe— it's hard to do it organization by organization.

And so I don't know if there's a convener of the organizations in town that work to pull pool resources, refer for things like that.

I don't know if there's a group like that in town or not, but I know there's a model of what they call community workforce partners where basically you come together, 15 organizations or 20, whatever the number is, and say, we're going to make sure our people are ready.

You may do this particular level of training and then you do the next, and then you can put pressure on funders to pool their money to support you.

So I've seen that work in small pockets, but it's not universal yet.

So it's, it's But it's the relationships.

I know we're getting close.

Thank you, Earl.

Ronnie Cannon again with Towards Employment.

In this current landscape where the federal government is handing down mandates when it comes to work requirements, I'm interested to understand your thoughts around the employee as well as the employer's role as it relates to benefits and the benefits cliff.

It's a multifaceted question.

I'm gonna deal with it from something we're working on right now.

So we are a fund— we're funded by Department of Ag, President Kahl is, um, to help determine SNAP eligibility either for training programs or for university students.

So that's our way of building the supportive services that are owed to them as eligible.

And so you don't see many— there's only 3 of us in the country that are doing that, performing eligibility at a wide level across institutional systems.

We're doing it with the SUNY system.

I'd love to do it here.

We're doing it— we're about to do it with the California Community College system, for example.

We're also starting to do it with training providers to say, you know, because that's not your mandate, so here's a tool that's going to help you determine eligibility and then what are they eligible for.

So that's just on There's other ways to do that, but that's an example we're working on now because quite frankly we thought SNAP would be the easiest thing to determine.

And then try to look at other local partners who could focus on the other pieces.

But for us, it's the SNAP piece has been the most beneficial and easy to assess.

If I could just do a quick follow-up.

So I think part of it also is when we think about advancement and asking employers to partner to help create internal pathways and individuals grow along that wage continuum, some of them, depending when they start, can be discouraged from pursuing that?

Well, they're going to lose.

They lose benefits.

Absolutely.

Of benefits.

And where, where does— where do the resources come and the navigation supports come to navigate during that while we're waiting for federal funding to change, federal policy to change?

We're waiting a long time, right?

What's the shared responsibility of employers, or is there shared responsibility from the employer side to help with bridging that gap?

Because They both the employer and the worker want to be able to advance.

Well, well, I think we touched on this earlier.

Yeah.

I think most individuals would would be okay with the cliff if they're making more money.

Right?

It still comes back to that.

It's going to come back, right?

Hi, my name is Celina Cunanan, and I'm the chief health impact officer at University Hospitals, and I'm a new board member here to the City Club.

So I'm happy to be here, and.

This is along the same lines in terms of looking at federal regulations and the changes that are happening.

So given the current national landscape changes around SNAP and Medicaid work requirements, this is a question for both of you.

It's like, how are organizations like CAEL and Towards Employment maybe adjusting their strategy to meet this growing needs?

As we know, workforce development is part of those things that can be counted as a work or a volunteer requirement or an employment.

And then what guidance can you provide for regional leaders around collectively addressing these challenges for our community members?

I'll let Jill do local, but I'll talk about emerging partnerships.

So we joined a coalition called Better Health, Better Pay, and its goal is to help MCOs, managed care organizations, help them understand not just to go after these Medicaid contracts, but how to really deal with the work requirement and do it in a meaningful way by connecting to practitioners on the ground.

Here's how you want to work with your local workforce board.

Here's how you work with your— the TE in your environment.

Here's how you work with your community college to say, if you're going to do a work requirement, let's make it a meaningful certificate that means something.

And so we've had some traction with that in about 5 states so far, but it's only 5 states.

So we'd like to see that continue to grow.

But I'm happy that someone took the mantle and said, no, this— we got to get ahead of this.

No only a few of the MCOs are taking advantage of this.

Like I said, it's only 5 states and probably 6 MCOs that are utilizing this, this technical assistance.

But we feel like it's going to grow because it makes sense.

And again, it's easy to understand how to do this, and then it'll be easier for people to understand what this really means for them in terms of, you know, the requirement of having to work and where it's going to lead you.

So we're trying to build that together, but that's, that's just a national and multi-regional play.

And locally, what we're seeing— the cuts in the program right now are really impacting what we're seeing.

We're seeing that in a number of different ways.

So the employment and training component of the SNAP program, where they're actually It was a great program where they're investing.

When they said there's work requirements, they then invested in creating training programs for people to help them meet that requirement.

But the number of SNAP recipients is declining, so the number of referrals for that E&T employment and training program is also declining.

We're seeing more people come in, older people.

We've had— we've just been discussing an influx of older people who Suddenly, either it's because they now have new work requirements or anticipating the Medicaid work requirements, which they raised the age for that.

Now thinking, what am I going to do?

I've got to get some more income.

And of course, the rising inflation—where's our Fed folks here—is also pushing older folks into our programs.

So we partner with the food bank and others.

It's really our case managers who are looking to see.

How can we fill this gap to support people who are experiencing this impact of these federal changes?

And then we're seeing slightly different composition of people who are coming in.

We have our— the benefit cliff is another area.

We have our coaches that work with incumbent workers, and we're actually just being part of a pilot program to get them trained to better help individuals analyze the impact of the cut and to be able to partner with them to think about how you can say yes to this promotion and an increased wage even though the loss in benefits far exceeds the gain in wage that you receive.

How can we help you with financial coaching?

How can we help facilitate conversations with the employers so that you can stay on track and not miss out on this opportunity to advance?

So earlier today we were just brainstorming ways to work together.

And just had an idea.

So with our SNAP work, we're we'll put an RFP out soon for new local partners in new local regions.

So maybe we should help you put an application together.

Yeah.

There we go.

Relationships work.

Yeah.

We'll follow up on that.

All right.

Oh.

Thank you to Earl Buford and Jill Rizika for joining us at the City Club today.

I'm Cynthia Connolly, Senior Director of Programming here at the City Club, and forums like this one are made possible thanks to generous support from individuals like you.

You can learn more about how to become a guardian of free speech at cityclub.org.

Today's forum was presented in partnership with Towards Employment as part of their annual Dignity of Work Forum.

Congratulations to everyone at Towards Employment on your 50th anniversary.

It's a major milestone.

That is incredible.

And also our gratitude to Adora and your entire team at Towards Employment for your hard work to make today possible.

And yes, of course, our best wishes to Jill on your next big adventure, and congratulations to Tanya as well.

And the City Club would like to also welcome guests at the tables hosted by BWE Citizens, Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga Community College, Deaconess Foundation, Ohio Guidestone, Towards Employment, and Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Thank you all for being here today.

Up next on Friday, August seventh, the City Club will welcome Dr.

Timothy Goler, author of Liberated Mind: A Guide to Black.

Clarity.

He will be in conversation with Dr.

Gregory Hall and will discuss how social systems shape Black experiences and how individuals and communities can reclaim their agency and live with clarity.

You can learn more about this forum and get your tickets at cityclub.org.

Thanks once again to Earl and Jill and to our members and friends of the City Club.

This forum is now adjourned.

For information on upcoming speakers.

Or for podcasts of the City Club, go to cityclub.org.

Production and distribution of City Club Forums on Ideastream Public Media are made possible by.

PNC, and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.